Interview: Ke$ha's Appetite for Construction

By Leah Collins, Dose.caJanuary 20, 2010

These days, brushing her teeth with a bottle of Jack is out of the question for Ke$ha. The singer’s electro-pop debut single, “TiK ToK,” introduced the world to that particular oral hygiene quirk, just as it introduced us to Ke$ha herself, a 22-year-old California blond who “ain’t got a care in the world, but got plenty of beer,” party-raps Uffie-style about “getting crunk” and “boys tryin’ to touch my junk” – and who exploded on the charts in a burst of MAC body glitter earlier this month. Her album, Animal, debuted at No. 1 in the U.S. and Canada.

Despite her no-pants and bedheaded party-girl persona, Ke$ha hasn’t had time to celebrate her success. “Well, I didn’t really because I’ve been working my balls off right now, so I haven’t had the opportunity to really go out and be crazy,” she says during our interview – one of many promo duties the singer had scheduled during a recent visit to Toronto.

When Animal came out Jan. 5, she admits she did manage to get out with some friends, “got some dinner, just went out and had a good time. Kickin’ it.” But definitely not anything that ended with her spewing in Paris Hilton’s closet (a la her ‘looganism dance-anthem “Party at a Rich Dude’s House”) – or with a DIY fireworks display on Broadway, as she told one reporter she would earlier this year.

“I would totally shoot fireworks down Broadway!” she says, jokily attempting to regain her rep for mischief. “I actually tried to obtain fireworks while I was there,” she says of a stop in New York the previous week, “but it turns out they’re totally illegal.”

With a new album to promote, Ke$ha is ready for business, not partying. It just so happens that the business she’s in is all about starting parties and other shenanigans. And as her album sales would indicate (Animal sold more than 16,000 copies in Canada in its first week, and broke records to become the biggest-selling digital album in the country), business for Ke$ha is good.

(Before she sits to chat, a makeup artist re-spackles gold-glitter to her lids, while another member of her team does a last-second re-adjustment to her ratted mane; it takes expert skill to look like a hungover celebutante when you’ve actually been alert and ready to work since dawn.)

Work on her debut album, it turns out, has been in development since her teens.

Ke$ha was raised, sans dollar sign, Kesha Rose Sebert, in Nashville, TN. “Honestly, our family all sits around and plays music together. It’s really cool,” she says. “My mom is a writer, my brother’s a guitar player and writer – and a political journalist now – and then my little brother plays drums and I play a little bit of guitar and keyboards and sing.” (If you wonder what she sounds like under the Auto-tune and Girls-Just-Wanna-Have-Fun swagger of her dance hits, YouTube has footage of a younger Ke$ha doing acoustic Rolling Stones covers with her older brother.)

Writing songs since she was 14, Ke$ha realized when she was “17-ish” that she wanted to get serious about a career in music, and began developing her songwriting skills with the help of her mom, Pebe Sebert. And considering Sebert is a pro songwriter – and responsible for Dolly Parton’s hit “Old Flames (Can’t Hold a Candle to You)” – it makes extra sense that she kept things in the family.

Ke$ha shares credit with her mom on two songs, gauzy ballad and title-track, “Animal” and the buoyant pure-pop album opener “Your Love is My Drug.”

“She’s my first co-writer, my teacher, my mentor, the whole thing,” Ke$ha says of her mom. She’s also her Grammy date; the singer will be presenting an award at the Jan. 31 ceremony.

“I would just go on writing trips with her, try to figure out what I wanted and try to write songs,” she says of her early sessions with her mom. “Stephen,” a goofy tune about “stalking this guy that won’t call me” comes from that era, she says – and it’s the oldest song on Animal. (The song’s sense of humour is also its most winning trait, like most of the tunes on the album. As Blackbook noted, “It’s an entirely tongue in cheek take on a teeny-bop track about being in love.”)

“I knew singing was in my future and then once I started writing I realized how important it is for me to write my own songs because I feel like I write songs in a way other people don’t,” Ke$ha says. What makes her different? She attributes it to her “weird mashup” of influences: a love of the Beastie Boys, courtesy her older brother’s record collection, ‘80s pop and dance music and the country-music ideals instilled in her by her mom. “My mom is a country writer and she told me, ‘Always be honest and always tell good stories,’” she says. “I tell a lot of stories which if you listen to country music is a lot of storytelling, but then it just happens to be in the words of a 17 to 22-year-old female.”

Specifically a “17 to 22-year-old female” sharing a house in Laurel Canyon, who crashes parties by night and records with hitmakers Dr. Luke and Max Martin by day. Animal shares the same high-glucose polish as executive producer Dr. Luke’s work with many other pop-starlets: Britney Spears, Kelly Clarkson, Katy Perry, etc. But under the surging synths and autotune is a slap-in-the-face sense of humour that is distinctly Ke$ha’s. It’s occasionally vulgar, sometimes clever (see the dirty-old-man dissing “D.I.N.O.$.A.U.R.”) but always fun-loving.

Ke$ha performed a short selection of the album’s dancefloor-ready tracks at a showcase in Toronto the night before the interview. The mini show featured what you’d expect from a Top 40 dance act, canned music and choreography -- but also an extended cowbell solo, and a DIY-style dance routine involving rhythmic gymnastic ribbons. Ke$ha’s pop, but it looks like she’s having fun taking the piss out of what makes a pop star.

There are no current plans for a tour beyond her previously announced commitment to the rebooted Lilith Fair this summer, Ke$ha says, but she does plan to keep the party going as long as possible – even if the responsibilities of being a best-selling pop act mean she’s not quite the same party girl she sings about on Animal.

“The thing about this record is that it’s a documentation of four years in Los Angeles,” she says. “I was still working hard, but I was out with my friends, and we’d go drink beer and get in trouble, and I wrote a record about it. It’s gotten me to this point.

“I’m definitely in it right now putting in the hard work to promote it, so maybe I’m not out partying all night so much anymore, but I’m still a good time. I don’t think it means you have to be messed up, or drunk, or out all night. I’m just a walking good time, and that can start at 7 a.m. for an interview.”

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